Phil Burns, a well-respected business partner of mine and community geek-leader, posted a very interesting note on his blog today that I want to comment on.
As usual, I began my comment on his own blog, but got too carried away and figured I might as well donate an entire post on the matter.
To get a background on his idea, see his post today, Social Networks and Corporations.
I think this is an incredibly powerful idea. Even if it were only once in a while, why not allow your employees to market themselves a little and work on projects for your partners and clients (competitors?) on a consulting basis!
A problem I see frequently is that the best talent are often "walled up" behind corporate islands and relationship-firewalls that make it impossible to access their talent without headhunting them out and stealing them away (ahem, which I don't necessarilly mind).
Instead, to build relationship-equity with your own employees, why not allow them to be farmed out on occasion when an interesting project or need arises? Encourage them to beef up and use their LinkedIn network. Encourage and enable them to blog realistically about their job, their trials and successes. (Buy their domain and host their blog for them free as long as they work for you). Have them encourage others to call them or chat them up about opportunities they have on a strictly consulting basis.
Heck, have them put themselves (or your whole team of developers, engineers, accountants, whatever) out on eLance or sologig or have them contact their favorite contract recruiter (ahem) and offer their services (as your company's consultant) to that recruiter's clientele.
This is so win-win-win:
- The end-company gets their project completed by an expert (that they will tell everybody about).
- Your employee gets to hone their skills and cut their chops on a new, cool challenge in a different environment. If they succeed at the project, the enthusiasm and praise they'll receive from the client company will fuel their creative genius around your office for weeks!
- Your company gets the respect and admiration of both other companies and your internal staff for being such an opem-minded and creative employer. You're allowing people to fuel their own creative selves and be an intrapreneur of sorts, without leaving you (and taking their knowledge and skill with them) to try it on their own.
The only way I can see it not being win-win is if you like keeping your employees' skills and abilities hidden from everyone except the next headhunter they run into ;)
Your thoughts?
Oh, I forgot to mention that this will require you to determine what your pay-rate (to your employee) and bill-rate (to the client company) will be before-hand.
I strongly recommend that you reward your employees' creativity by paying them a BONUS when they really go above and beyond for the client while still being able to keep track of your internal corporate milestones and mission.
Allowing your employees to grow in this way, I think, is a HUGE perk. Maybe even better than dental insurance...
Posted by: Robert Merrill | June 26, 2006 3:51 PM | Permalink to Comment